On Boxing Day we (parents) went to see The Hobbit with the same friends who accompanied us to watch the three Lord of the Rings films, many years ago (before blog).

It wasn't bad, though some scenes seemed to be a bit drawn-out. I read the book too long ago to remember, but the 'sing while throwing dishes' scene was a bit... weird, and the endless 'fight and flee' in the goblins' underworld just reeked of video game tie-in (let's loosen a big boulder which rolls and kills the enemies, and time our jump from the swinging bridge just right...)

We saw just one trailer, for Life of Pi, which left me totally clueless as to what it might be about, and why I'd want to see it. Weird.

Anyway, all of that is just a roundabout way to introduce the fact that I finally got the bits and time together to plug in my Raspberry Pi. The image quality on our ancient TV was appalling, but it didn't stop the girls having fun with some retro-style games.

I've already mentioned "In the Deep Midwinter" once on this blog (long, long, ago), but was inspired by this post on InternetMonk:

A baby is a harmless thingAnd wins our hearts with one accord,And Flower of Babies was their King,Jesus Christ our Lord.Lily of lilies HeUpon His Mother’s knee;Rose of roses, soon to be;Crown with thorns on leafless tree.

A lamb is innocent and mildAnd merry on the soft green sod;And Jesus Christ, the Undefiled,Is the Lamb of God.Only spotless HeUpon His Mother’s knee;White and ruddy, soon to beSacrificed for you and me.

Nay, lamb is not so sweet a word,Nor lily half so pure a name;Another name our hearts hath stirred,Kindling them to flame.“Jesus” certainlyIs music and melody.Heart with heart in harmonyCarol we and worship we.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around. With their very first cry, this most precious, vital part of ourselves – our child – is suddenly exposed to the world, to possible mishap or malice. And every parent knows there is nothing we will not do to shield our children from harm. And yet, we also know that with that child’s very first step, and each step after that, they are separating from us; that we won’t – that we can’t always be there for them. They’ll suffer sickness and setbacks and broken hearts and disappointments. And we learn that our most important job is to give them what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear. And we know we can’t do this by ourselves. It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize, no matter how much you love these kids, you can’t do it by yourself. That this job of keeping our children safe, and teaching them well, is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community, and the help of a nation. And in that way, we come to realize that we bear a responsibility for every child because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours; that we’re all parents; that they’re all our children. This is our first task – caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.".

This reminds me of a quote that I read somewhere, but can't remember where any more: "A man should love his children because they are children, not because they are his."

"We live in a culture of excess and live lives of culturally and religiously justified excess. Christians are deeply idolatrous of the success worship that runs our culture. We bizarrely believe that God guarantees and justifies our devotion to have the “best” of everything, American style. Do such deeply idolatrous values give evidence that the light has shone in our hearts to reveal the glory of God in the face of Jesus?".

Richard Rohr:

I have never been busier in my life than I have been recently. What right do I have to talk about contemplation when I have been living on overdrive? It seems that we tend to think that more is better. I am told that busyness is actually a status symbol for us! It is strange that when people have so much, they are so anxious about not having enough -- to do, to see, to own, to fix, to control, to change.

Several years ago when I was in Nicaragua, I asked a man if he had time, and he said, "I have the rest of my life," and smiled. Who of us would possibly say that? What we don't have is the rest of our lives because we do not have the now of our lives.

Last weekend I went to another carols service, at the Saint-François church in Lausanne. My ex organ teacher invited me to go and sit in the 'loft' with him, and get to see (and touch) the 5-manual organ they have there. It's charming mixture of old and new - mechanical organ, but the registration (choice of stops) can be saved in to presets which you can swap at the touch of a button.

And if you are not Concerned About Climate Change (and let's face it, a world with no electricity at all is a lot more terrifying than one a degree warmer) there's several hundred years of coal, which the Chinese will be burning anyway.

Europe and Japan need to move away from fossil quicker as they have no significant resource of either left, and the middle east is running out.

We can see a fairly smooth progressions away from things the depend on oil – cars and aircraft mainly – towards an more electric age powered by coal or nuclear.

There is enough fossil left to build it. It won’t collapse instantly, but the first pre-requisite is that expectations are radically changed. Deliberate or serendipitous, the current global ‘financial’ crisis is achieving this.

The second casualty beyond standard of living, and the collapse of a consumer society will be egalitarianism and possibly democracy. In a resource stripped world, you can’t afford to give candy to the kids, even if they have a vote: resources will have to go on those who can and will build the necessary infrastructure. That means a total retrenchment of the socialist state as a paternalistic protector and provider to the masses.

If these measures fail to occur, and weakness in central government leads to a form of neo-communism disguised as paternalistic egalitarianism, then the transition to a post industrial situation will not occur and the natural regression will be back to a neo-feudalism, with local warlords controlling what amounts to a localised suite of more or less self sufficient principalities under effective martial law by a landed and martial elite. This will result in something like 75%-95% population loss. It seems to be the direction the Green Faithful want to take things, and also the Islamic fundamentalists. It was essentially technology and access to it that eventually de-emphasised the land and warriors castes in favour of a skilled artisan and merchant class in Europe: strip energy away from this and it must revert back to feudalism, with massive loss of life, especially in the now irrelevant industrial cities.

In short any society that accepts that it needs a technocratic elite and nuclear power or coal to preserve what can be preserved and transform what must be transformed, will survive. Right now that looks like India and China. Whose populations have far lower expectations and far more respect for science technology and intelligence.

Western socialism will die completely – as it depends on the support of a class that is now supremely irrelevant.

Friday, December 14, 2012

More from the 40 days"I said a prayer for you todayAnd know God must have heard...I felt an answer in my heartalthough He spoke no word!I didn't ask for wealth or fame(I knew you wouldn't mind)I asked Him to send treasuresof a far more lasting kind

I asked that He'd be near youAt the start of each new dayto grant you health and blessingsand friends to share your way!

I asked for happiness for youI all things great and smallbut it was for His loving careI prayed the most of all!"

As I hinted the other day, we did quite a lot of things this weekend. I sang in the choir again at All Saints for the Service of Lessons and Carols. I didn't play the organ (though my teacher - who did play - suggested I might have been able to manage some of the easier ones), but the day before I did get to help the tuner tune two ranks. Even though my part consisted of just pressing keys (for two hours, at about 8 degrees C), it was an interesting experience.

On Sunday morning, I tried doing 'home church' with the girls. I think it went sort of ok, even though some of them weren't particularly motivated to start with.

And we tried a new game: "You play in your bedroom and pretend I'm not here. No fighting, no shouting, only call me if the house is burning down. For half an hour". After the initial bemusement, they got into it, and I ended up having an hour to myself, reading peacefully.